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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Kitchen Remodel - A Temporary Fix

Almost two years ago - Summer of 2011 to be exact - We tackled something that I have been wanting to do soo much since I moved in! The Kitchen. But unfortunately, we couldn't do a complete remodel (gutting, new cabinets, new everything) like we want to, because of one huge problem with our house - The foundation. 

The foundation of our house, especially on the kitchen side, is very bad. As in cracked, and leaning-house bad. The house is well over a century old - We found a document that had the date of 1854. In short, the kitchen is in such bad shape structurally, that we can't really do anything major in it yet until we fix the foundation. (BTW - This summer we plan on fixing it finally!)

So the remodel we did in 2011 is a temporary make-it-livable solution until we can completely gut it and redo everything! Warning: what you are about to see is pretty ugly.

Here's where we started. This was what the kitchen looked like when I moved in (please excuse the small phone pictures):
To me it was a cave-like nightmare of poop brown. Yep, I think that describes it. The super old cabinets were a dingy brown color, and the walls were textured and peach-colored. The ceiling even matched the peachiness of the walls, and even the curtains were a dingy brown color.

To start on our little makeover, we painted the walls a springy green, Valspar's "Summer Mist," and began painting the peach trim a semi-gloss white. Here's a picture with some of the paint on the walls and a little of the trim done. I know...the door is peach too. 

After a while, things were starting to take shape. The kitchen was beginning to feel less like a peach and brown cave, and more like a bright and sunny space:

The trim was looking 5,000 times better thanks to the time Trent spent caulking the seams and painting.


Along with the walls and trim, we also had the cabinets to tackle. Trent removed all the cabinet doors from the hinges, took them outside and sanded.

Once they were sanded, I primed them. Then eventually painted. We chose Olympic "Prairie Winds," which is kind of an antiquey white.

Here's our little helper getting in on the action:
And here's a little sample the cabinets we were working with BEFORE:

This is actually one of the open shelving sections that flank the stove. They're a little "handmade." But they work, so we left them for now. After all, it's only temporary, right?

Here's that same cabinet area after paint (and after removing those weird decorative corner things):

At that point we were starting to move things back in! Yay!

Oh, and I did leave a lot of little projects out that went into this, like the chairs:

These started out brown and ugly, but I went to town with the primer and white semi-gloss, and they definitely sunnied up a bit!

And we even installed Trent's favorite addition to the kitchen..Yep, a TV:


Another little project was putting in new cabinet hardware - including hinges and some of the drawer pulls (the shiny silver ones by the fridge, which you'll see in the pictures below).

Pretty soon, after what seemed like forever, we had stage one of the kitchen remodel complete (Let's call it "Operation: Make it Liveable"). Here's what it looked like at the end of our makeover (in September 2011):

Much better! It's so much more light and sunny, it's actually tolerable to spend time in here. You can see that we also put up a beadboard backsplash which we painted white semigloss like the trim. We just figured that would be something easy we could do to fix it up before the actual renovation.

We added Roman shades to all the windows and some accessories I've just picked up since I've been living here (like rugs, dish towels, little fake potted plants, etc.). And you can even see a little more of my plate collection hanging up there. Don't mind the mix and match of cups and dishes on the shelves - We don't have a lot of cabinet storage, and we aren't married so we don't have all of the matching dish sets quite yet! It's more of my college-dorm-day dishes. haha.


You can see that the ugly brown vinyl floor tiles are still there - another thing we're waiting on until we can get the foundation fixed.


Here is the table all dressed up in our Target tablecloth and sunflowers from the garden:


So that's step one of the kitchen makeover. At least it's livable for now, until we can fix the foundation and completely renovate it. And to give you a little timeline on how long all this took, I'd say it was pretty much all summer of 2011 (A few months). Here's a little Before and After to show just how far it's come to this point:
Since these pictures were taken right after the makeover about a year and a half ago, our kitchen really hasn't changed too much other than changing out accessories (ahem, maybe adding some owl friends), and replacing the ceiling fan for something a little more modern and flush to the ceiling.

After all is said and done, I like it a lot better now, because it feels a lot more "us," and hopefully soon, after the foundation is done, we can rip it all out and start over again! haha. But with a blank slate! Can I just say: Hello, stainless steel appliances, shiny tiles, and brand new cabinets. Can't wait!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Owl-y Business

So, this is just a little fun post I wanted to do before I share about the kitchen and the hallway renovation stuff. Sound ok? Good. If you take a look at my header, you'll see that there is a cute little owl in the corner (See it?). Well, I happen to have a little collection going with decorative owls. As in, they're pretty much my favorite. And they are scattered around the house like little helpers.  

Allow me to explain:
1. This owl sits on one of the little shelves in the kitchen. It has a place for a candle behind it.
2. This white ceramic owl also sits on one of the kitchen shelves. He keeps watch over the sink I suppose.
3. This is my Scentsy owl! If you haven't seen it in action, here you go:
Isn't it magical?
4. This owl sits on the phone table in the kitchen and keeps all the notes and pens for important messages, to-do lists, and the like. What a little helper.
5. This one sits on top of the fridge and keeps watch over all of our food. It has a lid also - I believe it can be used for a cookie jar, or just to keep anything you want in there really. I haven't figured out what to put in it yet. I got it from my sister for Christmas.
6. I almost forgot about this little guy when I was taking photographs - this is a knob on one of our cabinets in the kitchen! It's from Anthropologie - You can get it Here. Trent got it for me for Christmas. It's so adorable.

So those are my owls! Hopefully my collection will grow and I'll have new additions to share..although I think it's getting kind of crazy already, huh? ;)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Bedroom Update - Nearly Two Years Later

When we left off with the Bedroom Reveal in April 2011, it looked like this:
Our Newly Finished Bedroom, April 2011




Now, feast your eyes on this baby:
Our Bedroom Now





Isn't she a beaut? And even though this photo was taken last year, it hasn't changed too much since then. It is hard to keep it looking tip-top shape like in this photo, but basically this is what it looks like now. 

We have actually added a storage bench to the end of the bed since then, which Trent got me for my birthday last year. Here it is in all its glory:
It's from Target, and yes, it opens up its top to reveal bounties of storage! (wish I had a picture)
 But back to the Bedroom.
As you can see, we've added nightstands on both sides with matching lamps. The nightstands were from Amazon, and the lamps were from Marshall's I believe. (I will have to look up the exact stores and prices at another time and add them to this post.) We also added a couple of small rugs, and I love both of them! I think they were both from Marshall's as well, but again I will have to do some digging and check. Finally, there are two extra pillows on the bed to beef things up a little bit. It's hard to see them, but maybe I will add a detail shot once I get one. ;)

Oddly enough, when I first moved in, the bedroom did not have one thing that most people expect a bedroom to have...A door. So that was another addition.

Below you can see Trent installing it back in September 2011, and then after it was finished.


He has since tweaked it a little bit, and we have completely gutted the hallway as well, so that is a whole 'nother project for another time! (Which is still in progress by the way!)

The door you see to the left of the bedroom door is the door to the bathroom, which 1) Is the only bathroom in the house, and 2) Used to be the ONLY door to the only bathroom in the house. Yep, through our bedroom. How awkward for guests....

Anyway, Since this picture was taken, we have also added a second door to the bathroom, through the actual hallway. So things kinda make more sense now. I will share much more about this when I share the Hallway Renovation, which is a much longer, more complicated renovation than anything we have done in the house so far. So stay tuned for that.

But all in all, we like the bedroom a lot so far. We haven't gutted it or anything like we did the living room. But we don't think we need to for a long time. It still needs a lot of work as far as the closet goes - that's another project in itself - and it has a huge bare wall that needs attention, too. So it's still a work in progress!

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Two Years and Two Months In

Well, I took a very long hiatus from this blog. An almost two years hiatus (sorry blog). Since 2011, I have graduated college and have a full time job! Yep, I'm officially an adult now. 

Anyway, I'm BACK! I have randomly decided to start blogging again. And I'm going to try to keep up this time, buuuut...I have a lot of catching up to do. It has been about 2 years and 2 months since we have been living in this house now. And even longer that we have been renovating. It's extremely hard to stay motivated all the time to work on the house. We think about it A LOT. I mean, we are living in it. But to actually get the motivation and the time to work on everything that needs to get done is a challenge. Nonetheless, we have made lots of progress, so the next few (or several) posts are probably going to be filling you in on all of the big projects we've tackled.

First up, The Living Room. This was our first big project and the first room that we tackled, before I even moved in, back in 2010. If you go back to my first Living Room Post, you will see that we completely gutted the room. It looked like this about mid-way through:
The living room back in September of 2010.
We added insulation, which it had never had before!

Then we added a little drywall into the mix, and it looked like this:
October 2010 - Drywall and even some mud!
And we painted the walls (in Water Chestnut by Glidden):
October 2010 - Paint on the walls

Once the paint was complete, we refinished the floor and added window trim. Again, you can go back Here to see pictures of the finished floor. Meanwhile, here's Trent in action with the window trim (Sorry for the bad pic):
November 2010 - Installing window trim!
With the addition of some new furniture and accessories (the fun stuff), by Spring of 2011, our living room looked like this (Don't mind the door against the wall - we were saving that for another project):
Living Room in April 2011

Here's a (rather long) source list, too - scroll further down to see some of the items: 




Wall paint: Glidden in "Water Chesnut" from Home Depot, Curtains: IKEA, Curtain rods: Target, Couch: Sofa Mart, Couch pillows: Dwell from Target, Throw: Target, Side chairs: Target.com, Pillows on chairs: Kohl's, Lamps and lamp shades: Target, Coffee table: Already owned (But we think it was from Target), End tables: Target, Sea fan picture on wall: TJ Maxx, Decorative Iron wall hanging: Hobby Lobby, Pink Faux flowers and vase: Wal-Mart, Mirror (See below): Hobby Lobby, Brown storage ottoman (See below): Target, Chevron pillow (See below): Kohl's, Wall clock (See below): Kohl's, White picture frames (See below): IKEA, TV (See below): Samsung from Best Buy, TV Stand (See below): Target, Wall shelf (See below): Menards, Pillar Candles (See below): Kohl's, Candle Holders (See below): IKEA.

It's a big improvement, to us anyway, especially looking at the before and after pics:


That top picture may have been an in-progress shot, but still..you get the picture. Much better right?

I don't think I have taken an updated photo of the whole living room since then, but here are some pictures I have of various areas of the room:


The above photos are back from April of 2011 as well. It has changed a little since then - not drastically, but furniture has been switched around, and the brown ottoman you see in the above picture is currently living in the bedroom. We moved it out when we brought in the Christmas tree in December. We also have 2 end tables flanking the couch. The black chair you see in the picture on the right was Trent's and has moved back upstairs. It was a temporary fix for some additional seating, but it was looking kind of old and tired!

As you can probably tell, it is a fairly small room directly to the left when you walk in the house from the front door. The two pictures below show the little frame arrangement I added in the corner. The photos inside the frames have changed since then, so I will have to post an updated picture of those! We're sticking to mostly black and white photos on the walls...just what we prefer I guess.


My favorite addition to the living room so far is this:

It is the hutch that I inherited from my grandma in the Spring of last year. My grandma actually passed away in September, so I guess that kinda makes it extra special. I just love it in here...It makes it feel so much more like home. Most of the dishes inside were hers as well, including that green and white plate with the pink flowers that I have admired in her house for years. It is my favorite plate that I own! I actually have a collection of antique plates that I've gotten at antique stores and yard sales over the past couple of years. I have some of them in this cabinet, and some hanging in the kitchen. It's always fun looking for the perfect plate to add to my collection!

But anyway, there you have an update of our living room progress, which I hope to take more recent pictures for soon. In the end, I am really glad at the way it's turned out so far. It is definitely our favorite room in the house, and the room we spend the most time in everyday, so it's been fun watching it change and become more "home-y" along the way.

Stay tuned for some more updates tomorrow!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Our hotel-like bedroom: The process and reveal

So we finished our bedroom makeover back in January. It took a lot of hard work and elbow grease, chipping away at layers of paint on the walls, then coating them with our lovely paint colors, and refinishing the floor. We even picked out our pretty curtains and bedspread. When we were finished, it felt like we were sleeping in a nice hotel room. It was definitely a shocker to walk through the hallway and see this at the end of it! Everyone's instant reaction was WOW! haha. Granted, we still need nightstands and better lighting..not to mention a useable closet space and dressers! But here is a look at the process.

The before/progress pictures..


Most of the progress pictures were taken in the late fall and winter of last year. I listened to many-a Christmas song while painting the trim and walls of this baby. Here are the pics:



Trent mudding parts of the wall after we had scraped most of the paint off.
Look at that peach ceiling and ugly wall!! Yeah, it was bad.




Here is another corner of the room. That's the closet on the left. You can see that
more scraping has taken place! We were trying to get the walls to be as smooth as possible
before priming and painting the new color onto the walls.




The "window wall" in all its before glory. Yummy isn't it? 




Here we have a pile of paint chips on the floor. This stuff was
all over the place. In the end, we were left with paint chips in our hair, 
inside our sweatshirts, and a big old garbage bag full of it.




Here is a corner of the room after the first coat of primer was
applied to the walls. Look at how yellow and gross the window trim
and old blinds look compared to the bright white primer!




Here's that window wall again, all primed. Yet the ugly
blinds are still there. Don't worry, we removed them :)




Yay, finally getting paint on the walls and trim!




Painted walls and trim.and floor is cleaned!




Trent applying mineral spirits to the floor. This is supposed
to help clean it and get it ready for the sealer and poly. But it kinda smells horrible.




Applying sanding sealer to the floors. Starting to look nice, no? Make sure your
space is WELL - VENTILATED before refinishing floors. We had the heat on, and it made 
the entire house extremely fume-y. Not good.



After the sealer was applied. Love the richer color. We didn't even need to use stain.




I believe this is after the first coat of poly..the edges obviously not done yet. And as you
can see, the trim still needs another coat of semi-gloss after the sander went through.
Plus, see that curtain rod in the upper right corner? Yay for progess!


The TV that was in my dorm at Ambrose. Mounted on the wall, next to the bathroom door!

And the reveal..drumroll please.....


AFTER:

(Please excuse the blue light from the tv)






 It's gunna be like this until we can gut it and drywall it like the living room. And we
still need to find some nightstands, lamps, redo the closet, etc. But we love it!


Here it is in the daylight with the little pictures hung on each side of the bed.

And here's where we got everything: 

Wall paint: Dutch Boy in "Cozy Neutral" from Wal-Mart, Trim paint: Glidden Semi-gloss white from Home Depot, Curtains: Martha Stewart Collection at Home Depot, Curtain rods: Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Bed: Slumberland, Sheets: Kohl's, Duvet cover & shams: Organic cotton pintuck in "Sea Spray" from West ElmWhite and brown pillows: Target, Throw: Target




These are the pictures... I picked the frames up from the dollar store for a buck each,
Then printed out our first initials with a light turquoise background. And voila, cheap art!

Hope you like the bedroom reveal!



Friday, April 8, 2011

Starting to feel like home - A little update & pictures tomorrow

So I'm watching House Hunters International right now... jealous of course :). But anyway, I decided to update since a gazillion things have happened since my last one! It was LAST YEAR since I updated in here..Wow is all i can say. But I have since graduated in December with my Bachelors in Graphic Design. Woot! And I've still been going to school for my web developer certificate that I will get next month. Then it's the real world &; job hunting....kinda scary! Ugh, don't even wanna think about it now. I also turned 23 last month. We went out for pizza at Old Chicago and it was a grand old time!

Things are going fantastically well in the house. Of course we have tons more updating/renovating to do, but it's getting there. We have a cozy bedroom, which I will go into the details maybe this weekend. Tomorrow? We shall see. Anyway, the living room, which I'm in right now, is by far my favorite room. It's so comfy and cozy and it's so NEW! We've gotten lots more furniture, and I will document the room hopefully this weekend too. Because hard work needs to be documented. :)

Our current projects include refinishing our kitchen chairs, which are looking super cute and comfy, and starting our outdoor landscaping hopefully soon. (Now that it's spring and getting warmer.) We finally just purchased new end tables and lamps for our living room, courtesy of Target. I swear, like 85% of our living room items are from Target. 'Cause Target = LOVE.

A couple of big projects we still need to do soon are redoing the hallway and the closet, and finish installing the living room trim. More on that later.

More detailed posts maybe tomorrow. Trent will be home from work very soon! I think I may go to bed...not even 10:30 and I'm tired. Oh, to be 22 again :)..lol.

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